New season starts!

For many months now, the stables have seemed lifeless, the only action being the regular visits from a small band of volunteers who have been looking after our horses all winter in all weathers. Suddenly, yesterday, it was all change – the weather was mild and sunny with no wind, and the stables seemed to come alive again. There were about 14 present, which included Mel, our vet, and Keith our farrier and three “newcomers”, Meg, Robin and Jonathan.

The horses were brought to the yard for a dental check by Mel, and Keith gave them all their first shoes of the year. The horses looked shaggy and warm in their winter coats, and seemed to enjoy being in the middle of all the action, ears pricked monitoring what going on around them.


A certain amount of enthusiastic spring-cleaning of the feed room and chalet was started, and volunteers were rounded up for more spring-cleaning next week. Coffee and cakes were available in the chalet, and with Wally busy at the computer, Denise hard at work on her side of the table, and others coming and going, it suddenly felt like home again!

New season preparations.

Open wide, please!

Mel gets down to it (or rather, into it)

A very shaggy Marmite, teeth done, new shoes on, ready for work

Charlie Brown keeping an eye on things

Shaggy Maggie with snowdrops behind her

Keith hard at work (no alternative captions are required!)

The underside of one of Felix’ feet, showing the frog.

We would like to welcome to Meg, Robin and Jonathan, and we hope to see a lot more of them. We would also like to thank Jonathan for his excellent photos – the ones shown here are only a small selection, which also included a video clip which Denise hopes to use for training.

Birthday Celebs

"Wally and Denise celebrated their birthdays in mid January at Dylans, with some of their friends. A delicious lunch (what else would you expect at Dylans??) was followed by a birthday cake, courtesy of Dylans.

PS Our technophobic secretary took the photos, and apologises for the delay in circulating them: she had just discovered after 5 years that her mobile had a camera, but it took a further month before she could find someone to download the photos for her!"

Woodland Carriage Drives

Disappearing Woodland

Judging by the size of the stacks of timber on two seperate sites that have been felled this year, (a third year of harvesting), our woodland drives are diminishing to make way for more and more heathland!

On the plus side we have gained an extra new track the full length of the woods bordering the Lytchett Bay reed-beds and Little Mead that will connect up with the fields making a nice interesting circuit for us this year.

We are now hoping that this recent spell of Arctic weather may have run its course and, as the days lengthen, we can look forward to a milder spell as we plan to get the shoes back on the horses at the end of the month ready to start light work in early March. The horses all look in fine shape with their woolly coats keeping them warm.